Former Cardiff City and AFC Bournemouth defender Jon Meades is taking longer to recover from his knee injury than AFC Wimbledon had hoped, manager Neal Ardley confirmed.

The 25-year-old was substituted at half-time in the Dons 3-0 loss to Bradford City in April and has been struggling with his knee since, undergoing an operation.

It was hoped with the operation out of the way and a summer break, the defender might have been able to return with the rest of the squad to pre-season training this week, but Ardley has revealed the knee is still an on-going concern.

"Jon Meades is making a little slower progression than we thought," Ardley told the AFC Wimbledon website.

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"He's had his operation and we thought he might be back in training this week, but that's not the case so we'll monitor that."

Tom Soares is also a doubt for Saturday's friendly at Eastleigh but Ardley is pleased with the decision to put Darius Charles under the surgeon's knife earlier this week after he suffered an injury set-back on the first day of pre-season.

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"Tom Soares has been a week behind everyone because of his broken leg and he felt a few things, so we'll have a look at whether we include him," Ardley said.

"It's been good for Darius though, everything they'd hoped they would see," explained Neal. "His ITB band around the side of his knee was very tight and they've done a release on that to give it a bit more flexibility. That should cure all his problems and Darius can spend the next six weeks getting himself super-fit and have a mini pre-season and get back into full training."